How can I get rid of the GPE/Opie bootsplash?
Move /etc/rcS.d/S20bootsplash to /etc/rc5.d/S98bootsplash or remove the file entirely. As an additional step consider installing bootlogd and redirecting the output of /etc/init.d/modutils.sh > /var/log/modules 2>&1 and moving that file to /var/log/modules.last on the next boot in {{/etc/rcS.d/S10}}} that way you can catch module loading failures.